Queen Anne's Revenge
The Queen Anne's Revenge (formerly known as Concord and La Concorde de Nantes) was a legendary ship mostly known to be captained by the notorious pirate Edward Teach, mostly known as Blackbeard. History A merchant ship The Concord She was built in England in 1710 and named Concord. At first she served as merchant ship but she was captured by French privateers a year later. While in France, her stern was modified to resemble that of the Dutch flute, and she was later sold to Spain. In 1713 she was returned to France and again underwent a transformation. She was eventually sold to Rene Montaudoin, a French merchant who refitted her as a slave ship and renamed La Concorde de Nantes. ''La Concorde de Nantes'' La Concorde left Nantes on March 24, 1717. The ship was armed with sixteen cannons and had a crew of seventy-five. On July 8, La Concorde arrived at the port of Judas, on the coast of West Africa. There they took on a cargo of 516 captive Africans. The captain and officers also obtained about twenty pounds of gold dust for their own account. La Concorde took nearly eight weeks to cross the Atlantic Ocean and the hardships of the notorious Middle Passage took their toll on both the Africans and the French crew. By the time they reached the Caribbean, sixty-one slaves and sixteen crewmen had perished. After crossing the Atlantic, and only 100 miles from Martinique, the French ship encountered two pirate sloops, one with 120 men and twelve cannons, and the other with thirty men and eight cannons. The pirates were led by none other than Blackbeard, a notorious pirate captain. With the French crew already reduced by sixteen fatalities and another thirty-six seriously ill from scurvy and dysentery, the French were powerless to resist. After the pirates fired two volleys at La Concorde, Captain Dosset surrendered the ship. used for the Queen Anne's Revenge's mainmast]] The pirates took La Concorde to the island of Bequia in the Grenadines where the French crew and the enslaved Africans were put ashore. While the pirates searched La Concorde, the French cabin boy, Louis Arot, informed them of the gold dust that was aboard. The pirates searched the French officers and crew and seized the gold. The cabin boy and three of his fellow French crewmen voluntarily joined the pirates, and ten others were taken by force including a pilot, three surgeons, two carpenters, two sailors, and the cook. Blackbeard and his crew decided to keep La Concorde and left the French the smaller of the two pirate sloops. The French gave their new and much smaller vessel the appropriate name Mauvaise Rencontre (Bad Encounter) and, in two trips, succeeded in transporting the remaining Africans from Bequia to Martinique. Soon, Blackbeard doubled the number of the ship's guns and renamed her the Queen Anne's Revenge, in honor of Queen Anne of Great Britain. Blackbeard's pirate ship The Queen Anne's Revenge Leaving Bequia in late November, Blackbeard with his new ship cruised the Caribbean taking prizes and adding to his fleet. From the Grenadines, Blackbeard sailed north along the Lesser Antilles plundering ships near St. Vincent, St. Lucia, Nevis, and Antigua, and by early December he had arrived off the eastern end of Puerto Rico. From there, the pirates were headed to Samana Bay in Hispaniola. By April 1718 the pirates were off the Turneffe Islands in the Bay of Honduras. It was there that Blackbeard captured the sloop Adventure, forcing the sloop's captain, David Herriot, to join him. Sailing east once again, the pirates passed near the Cayman Islands and captured a Spanish sloop off Cuba that they also added to their flotilla. Turning north, they sailed through the Bahamas and proceeded up the North American coast. In May 1718, the pirates arrived off Charles Town in South Carolina, with the Queen Anne's Revenge and three smaller sloops. Blockade of Charles Town In perhaps the most brazen act of his piratical career, Blackbeard blockaded the port of Charles Town for nearly a week. The pirates seized several ships attempting to enter or leave the port and detained the crew and passengers of one ship, the Crowley, as prisoners. As ransom for the hostages, Blackbeard demanded that the pirates be given a chest of medicine. The medicines eventually delivered, the captives were released, and the pirates continued their journey up the coast. Before they departed, the pirates also plundered all valuables from the captured ships. Grounded In June 1718, Blackbeard's fleet attempted to enter Old Topsail Inlet in North Carolina. During that attempt, the Queen Anne's Revenge grounded on the ocean bar and was abandoned. Blackbeard then disbanded his fleet except for the Adventure and twenty men. But after the battle of Ocracoke Inlet, Blackbeard saved the Queen Anne's Revenge, and she served as his flagship once again. War of Jolly Roger Some time after he repaired the Queen Anne's Revenge, Blackbeard assembled a new crew. All of them were jumbees, malevolent supernatural beings, well-known throughout the Caribbean. Enslaved by Blackbeard's Dark Magic, they served their master without question. Soon, Blackbeard put LaSchafe, his loyal jumbee first mate, in charge of the Queen Anne's Revenge. But, in 1740s, during the War of Jolly Roger, the undead pirate Jolly Roger managed to take control of LaSchafe, his soulless crew, and the Queen Anne's Revenge. Controled by Jolly Roger's voodoo powers, the Revenge and her ghastly crew started to attack pirate ships in the Caribbean. For many months, the Queen Anne's Revenge sailed around wild islands like Isla Cangrejos, Isla Perdida, and Isla Tormenta, attacking ships of the Brethren Court. But, through unknown circumstances, Blackbeard managed to retake the Revenge. Later years ]] Later, Blackbeard added more cannons onboard the ship and some zombies to the crew. He also installed Greek fires aboard the ship, which he used on a number of occasions. During one of Blackbeard's raids, on a remote island, a missionary named Philip Swift was captured and taken prisoner aboard the Queen Anne's Revenge. At that time, Blackbeard's daughter Angelica joined the crew as a First Mate. Shortly after the War Against Piracy, the Queen Anne's Revenge was sailing off the coast of Hispaniola, when she encountered the Black Pearl, a ship of the notorious pirate Hector Barbossa. After firing a broadside at the Black Pearl, Blackbeard used his magical sword to bring the rigging of the Black Pearl to life. At Blackbeard's command, the rigging caught the entire crew, except Barbossa, who managed to free himself by cutting off his own leg. Search for the Fountain of Youth .]] In 1750, Blackbeard sent Angelica to London to find Jack Sparrow, a pirate captain who had knowledge of how to get to the Fountain. After Jack escaped from King George's palace, Angelica forced him aboard the Queen Anne's Revenge. They sailed for the Caribbean, but King George sent after them the [[HMS Providence|HMS Providence]], captained by Hector Barbossa, Jack's old nemesis, now a privateer in the service of England. At some point during the journey, Jack Sparrow attempted to raise a [[Mutiny on the Queen Anne's Revenge|mutiny aboard the Queen Anne's Revenge]]. However, Blackbeard used his sword and his voodoo powers to crush the mutiny relatively easy. A few days after the attempted mutiny, Blackbeard led the Queen Anne's Revenge to Whitecap Bay, where he and some of the crewmen managed to capture a mermaid named Syrena. After that, Blackbeard's crew went ashore, leaving the Queen Anne's Revenge docked in a protected cove. The new captain cheering aboard the Queen Anne's Revenge]] While Blackbeard's men guarded the Revenge, Joshamee Gibbs was able to sneak aboard and steal Blackbeard's collection of shrunken ships in a bottle, the Black Pearl among them. After Blackbeard's death, his crew joined a privateer named Hector Barbossa, who turned to piracy once again. His first order as the ship's captain was to set sail for Tortuga. The further fate of the ship is unknown. Design and appearance The Queen Anne's Revenge was a three-masted frigate. Her stern was decorated in red and gold colors. Her figurehead resembled a golden skeleton which was identical to the one which appeared on Blackbeard's first pirate flagDid You Know? ...On Stranger Tides edition. The bow and the stern castle were also decorated with numerous miniature skeletons. The outer walls of Blackbeard's cabin were decorated with numerous skulls of Blackbeard's victims. Unlike the Black Pearl, the Queen Anne's Revenge had a spritsail topmast at the end of the bowsprit. The ship's sails were painted blood red, but they were dirty and tattered from long use and many battles.[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9AjWJbZgdbU& Last Sail, First Voyage] Behind the scenes *The Queen Anne's Revenge is portrayed by the Sunset, which previously portrayed the Black Pearl in Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest and Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End. In 2010, the Sunset was redesigned to portray the Queen Anne's Revenge in Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides''http://www.movieweb.com/movie/pirates-of-the-caribbean-on-stranger-tides/PGhkGoijlmd3jq. *The ''Queen Anne's Revenge and the Santiago were the first historical ships that appears in ''POTC'' film series. *In Pirates of the Caribbean Online, the Queen Anne's Revenge is crewed by jumbees led by LaSchafe. *The Queen Anne's Revenge appears briefly in Tim Powers' novel, On Stranger Tides, which was used as the basis for Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides. She has no active role in the novel. *In real-world history, the Queen Anne's Revenge was armed with forty cannons but she wasn't saved from the sand bar in 1718. She was stripped of Blackbeard's pirate plunder and abandoned, shortly before Blackbeard's death. *In Rick Riordan's book, The Sea of Monsters, the Queen Anne's Revenge is stolen from Blackbeard by the protagonists. Appearances *''Pirates of the Caribbean Online'' *''Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides'' *''LEGO Pirates of the Caribbean: The Video Game'' Sources *''Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides'' *''Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides: The Visual Guide'' Notes and references Category:Queen Anne's Revenge crew Category:Pirate ships Category:Lore Category:Merchant ships Category:Frigates Category:Battleships Category:Historical ships Category:Jolly Roger's fleet